- US, Iranian regimes launch attacks amid supposed ceasefire
Source: Politico
“U.S. and Iranian forces exchanged strikes on land and at sea Thursday as President Donald Trump pursues a comprehensive deal to end the war. Central Command said U.S. forces were responding with ‘self-defense strikes’ in the country after Iranian forces launched missiles, drones and small boats at three Navy destroyers in the Strait of Hormuz …. Trump confirmed the attacks in a social media post, describing Iranian drones as getting ‘incinerated while in the air’ before being ‘dropped ever so beautifully down to the Ocean, very much like a butterfly dropping to its grave.’ He told ABC News that the U.S. strikes were a ‘love tap’ and that the ceasefire remains in effect. … Iran said the U.S. strikes amounted to a violation of the ceasefire, and said the U.S. targeted an Iranian oil tanker travelling through the strait, according to an Iranian statement carried by state media.” (05/07/26)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/07/us-iran-trade-fire-amid-ceasefire-00911016
- US trade court rules against Trump’s 10% global tariffs
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“The US trade court on Thursday ruled against Donald Trump’s latest 10% global tariffs, finding across-the-board tariffs were not justified under a 1970s trade law. The US court of international trade ruled in favor of small businesses that challenged the tariffs, which took effect on 24 February. The ruling was 2-1, with one judge saying it was premature to grant victory to the small business plaintiffs. The small businesses had argued the new tariffs were an attempt to sidestep a landmark US supreme court decision that struck down the Republican president’s 2025 tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.” (05/07/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/07/trump-global-tariffs-trade-court-ruling
- Russian, Ukrainian regimes fight on despite WW2 celebration ceasefire proposal
Source: Reuters
“Russia and Ukraine accused each other on Friday of violating a unilateral two-day ceasefire announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin to cover the anniversary celebrations of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany. … With no victory yet in sight for either side in a gruelling war of attrition, Putin announced a May 8-9 ceasefire to cover the celebrations of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany – Russia’s most revered national holiday. Kyiv responded that a ceasefire just for the holiday was inappropriate and called instead for an indefinite truce to begin two days earlier, which Moscow ignored. The Russian Defence Ministry said 264 Ukrainian drones had been downed in the early hours of Friday …. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russian forces continued to strike Ukrainian positions during the night on Friday, which he said showed Russia has not made ‘even a token attempt to cease fire on the front.'” (05/08/26)
- Bitcoin slips to $79,000, DOGE leads majors losses as negative funding rates set 10-year record
Source: CoinDesk
“Bitcoin has pulled back from a midweek high above $81,000 amid renewed U.S.-Iran tensions, but it remains higher on the week alongside mostly resilient global risk assets. … Ether dropped 2% to $2,278, dogecoin slid 3.8% to $0.1063, XRP fell 1.7% to $1.38, and BNB shed 0.7% to $638. Solana and TRON held in green territory at $88.14 and $0.3474 respectively. Dogecoin is the only major coin in the red on the seven-day tape.” (05/08/26)
- NY: State budget deal includes anti-gang provisions
Source: New York Times
“Four months after masked federal agents [murdered] Renee Good and Alex Pretti on the streets of Minneapolis, New York leaders announced a plan to implement some of the strictest rules for immigration officials of any state in the country. The package, which was included in the state budget deal announced on Thursday, prohibits state and local officials from entering into formal or informal cooperation agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and forbids law enforcement agents from wearing masks. The rules also prohibit ICE from using local jails to house [abductees] and from searching New Yorkers’ homes, hospitals, churches and schools without a warrant signed by a judge. … Days before the measures were finalized, Tom Homan, President Trump’s border czar, threatened to respond with force if they were approved.” (05/07/26)
- ECMWF predicts 100% chance of “super El Niño”
Source: New York Post
“The latest long-range European forecast shows there’s a 100% chance of a super El Niño, potentially suppressing hurricane activity and making for a wetter fall and winter in the southern U.S. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) issued their May long-range forecast model, which ups the chances of the strongest El Niño ever hitting by November. … Typically, a strong El Niño like this one would mean suppressed hurricane activity in the Atlantic, and increased activity in the Eastern Pacific. However, the ECMWF isn’t yet showing a strong decrease in hurricane forecast numbers for the season, making it possible that the strongest El Niño effects may not be felt until later into the season.” (05/07/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/05/07/science/2026-el-nino-intensity-forecast-explained-what-to-know/
- AI Will Change the Labor Landscape
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jake Scott“A particular legal case from China has also caught the interest and attention of many commentators in the West for its potential future significance. In a major landmark decision, the Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court upheld a ruling, reached after three years, that a company had unlawfully transferred the risks and costs of technological change onto an employee, in violation of China’s Labor Contract Law. In other words, the Court ruled that the company illegally fired one of their employees for automating his role through AI.” (05/07/26)
https://fee.org/articles/ai-will-change-the-labor-landscape/
- One Cheer for Trump’s Germany Troop Withdrawal
Source: The American Conservative
by Doug Bandow“Like a mad king of old, President Donald Trump spends hours wandering his palace, developing plans to better display his wealth and glory to an increasingly skeptical and antagonistic world. Occasionally he remembers his royal responsibilities and implements the right policy, though even then often for the wrong reason. Such as reducing the number of U.S. troops in Germany. At least it’s a start, though resulting from a fit of pique, since Berlin, like virtually every other government on earth, criticized his lawless, reckless attack on Iran, which is disrupting the global economy. He is threatening to do the same to Italy and Spain, whose political leaders also have denounced Trump’s bungled aggression, openly conducted on behalf of the Israeli government rather than the American people.” (05/07/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/one-cheer-for-trumps-germany-troop-withdrawal/
- The Populism of Bicentennial Commercialism
Source: Garrison Center
by Joel Schlosberg“In the months leading up to the USA’s 250th birthday party, some debris from its 200th is making headlines. The New York Times‘s Jennifer Schuessler finds conspicuously ‘much less investment and enthusiasm overall’ for this year’s semiquincentennial anniversary of the Declaration of Independence than the 1976 bicentennial, itself diminished by jaded jeers charging that ‘‘Buy-centennial’ huckersterism had sold out the true radical spirit of ’76’ (‘How a Historian Saved the Schlock of ’76,’ May 5). Schuessler chronicles plenty of ‘hats, mugs, playing cards and pickleball paddles’ currently being hawked under the aegis of Donald Trump, but compared to such bicentennial-branded excrescences of ‘unapologetic 1976-style schlock’ as toilet paper, diapers and condoms, even the output of a coauthor of Think Big and Kick Ass in Business and Life can be described on the pages of the Gray Lady as ‘tasteful.'” (05/07/26)
- America’s Immigration Prohibitionism Breeds Cartel Violence, Not Undocumented Immigrants
Source: The UnPopulist
by Nathan Goodman and Molly Rovinski“When legal pathways to immigration are closed, migrants don’t stop coming — they turn to smugglers. Smugglers must pay cartels to move people through their territory. The more aggressively the United States restricts legal entry and patrols traditional crossing routes, the more dangerous those crossings become, and the more indispensable smugglers — and the cartels behind them — become. The result is a perverse inversion of the stated goal: the harder Trump and Miller push to seal the border, the more they enrich the organizations they claim to be fighting.” (05/07/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/americas-immigration-prohibitionism
- Defenders of the Jones Act Have Lost
Source: Cato Institute
by Scott Lincicome“For more than a century, the Jones Act has survived on purported economic and security grounds. Its waiver by the Trump administration for Operation Epic Fury reveals serious flaws in both rationales. Section 27 of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, as it’s formally known, requires that goods shipped between US ports travel on vessels that are US-built, US-flagged, US-owned, and crewed predominantly by US citizens. Because of this legally-enforced domestic shipping monopoly, building and operating ships in America today costs far more than doing so abroad, and domestic coastwise shipping is effectively non-existent outside the few places that have no choice, such as Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Rather than bolstering US commercial shipping capacity and the merchant marine, the Jones Act has presided over the steady degradation of both.” (05/07/26)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/defenders-jones-act-have-lost
- Trump’s blockade is an act of war, not the end of war
Source: Los Angeles Times
by Jon Duffy“President Trump recently described the U.S. naval blockade of Iran as ‘a very friendly blockade.’ There is no such thing. A blockade is an act of war, using armed forces to restrict another nation’s movement, commerce and access to the sea. It does not become peaceful because no one challenges it on a particular day. Trump’s administration says the ceasefire with Iran means he no longer has to seek congressional authorization to continue the war beyond 60 days, even though federal law requires it. A ceasefire may pause the shooting. It does not make an ongoing act of war disappear. The president can argue that the blockade is necessary. He cannot honestly argue that the war is effectively over while keeping the blockade in place. More dangerous than Trump’s word choice is Congress’[s] silence.” (05/07/26)
- A Few More Thoughts On AI And Consciousness
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“Richard Dawkins is currently the subject of much laughter and ridicule over his recent article for UnHerd admitting that a highly sycophantic chatbot had convinced him that it might be conscious. I’m seeing the question ‘How can you be confident that AIs aren’t conscious?’ pop up a lot in response to the controversy. Speaking for myself, I would say I am confident the chatbots aren’t conscious in the same way I’m confident the animatronics at Disneyland aren’t conscious. I know humans constructed them to mimic the behavior of a sentient person. We know this for a fact. Nobody’s pretending otherwise. I am infinitely more likely to believe an animal is conscious than that an LLM is, because nobody programmed them to respond to things like pain and social stimulus in ways that are similar to humans.” (05/07/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/05/07/a-few-more-thoughts-on-ai-and-consciousness/
- Is Economics Finally Becoming Trustworthy?
Source: EconLog
by James B Bailey“A core premise of science is that research should be replicable. If one scientist creates an experiment to measure a physical constant like the speed of light, and they document their experiment well enough, other scientists should be able to perform the same experiment and find the same result. If one lab’s results can’t be replicated anywhere else, then like cold fusion, they probably aren’t real. Outside of hard sciences like physics we don’t expect to get the same precision. Perhaps one trial finds a drug reduces heart attacks by 17%, while another finds 14%. But for research to usefully inform our actions, it needs to be at least somewhat replicable.” (05/07/26)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/economics-finally-trustworthy
- The Surcharge Tax Americans Pay to Finance Israel’s Wars
Source: CounterPunch
by Jamal Kanj“Since early March 2026, the average American household has been spending 50 percent more to fill their tank than just one month earlier. The Trump administration and its Israel-first ideologues blamed market forces for the spike, framing it as short-term pain for long-term gain. What they will not say, what they are never permitted to say in Washington, is that Americans have been living the ‘pain’ of the Israeli oil surcharge tax for more than half a century. The bill keeps growing, but no longer only financially. The U.S. is also paying with something harder to rebuild than a budget, its moral standing in the world.” (05/07/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/05/07/the-surcharge-tax-americans-pay-to-finance-israels-wars/
- The Libertarian Angle, 05/07/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“Jacob, Richard, and special guest Jim Bovard discuss why America continues to move in a bad direction.” (05/07/26)
- Underthrow Podcast, 05/07/26
Source: Underthrow
“The Only Way to Win is Not to Play.” (05/07/26)
- The Anarchist Experience, episode 579
Source: The Anarchist Experience
“Rich, Lori, and Riley discuss Libertarian infighting drama, Kids getting away with things, and How cars are controlling drivers even more.” (05/07/26)
https://theanarchistexperience.wordpress.com/2026/05/08/the-anarchist-experience-579/